Ultra-wideband (UWB) modulation provides high data rate radio communications for transferring data using very wide modulation bandwidths. FIG. 1 shows a typical application of UWB communication links used for indoor wireless communications. Several transceivers, for example, transceivers 110, 120, 130, 140 are part of a network 100 allowing high bandwidth communications between the transceivers 110, 120, 130, 140. The transceivers 110, 120, 130, 140 can include, for example, a high definition television (HDTV) monitor networked with other devices, such as, a digital video recorder (DVR), a digital video disk (DVD) player and a computing device.
The Federal Communications Committee (FCC) has mandated that UWB radio transmission can legally operate in the frequency range of 3.1 GHz to 10.6 GHz. The transmit power requirement for UWB communications is that the maximum average transmit Effective Isotropic Radiated Power (EIRP) is −41.25 dBm/MHz in any transmit direction. The bandwidth of each transmission channel is 528 MHz.
Due to the low-power transmission associated with UWB communications, it is desirable to be able to predict link qualities between UWB devices. The links are subject to noise and interference, and as a result, can vary greatly in quality. A prior art method of determining link quality includes measuring signal to noise ratio (SNR) of transmission signals. However, in high-bandwidth transmission, SNR is not always a good indicator of packet error rate (PER) of transmitted data. The noise and/or interference can vary greatly over the large transmission frequency band. Two different transmission links having a similar measured average SNR can provide considerably different transmission data rate capacities. The optimal mode selection should provide the best quality transmission link.
It is desirable to have a method and apparatus for predicting transmission link quality for different transmission configurations. It is desirable that the method and apparatus be efficient, and not require additional transmission bandwidth.